Happy Birthday Extras
by GrandiloquentHeartlessness
Summary: Just a collection of some extra little pieces I've accumulated over the years writing Happy Birthday and Lost and Found
1. Intro

Hello and welcome to the collection of things I've accumulated over my years writing my two stories _Happy Birthday_ and _Lost and Found. _You will need to read those (at least the first one) for this to make sense.

This isn't a sequel, it's just some stuff that I had to leave out, and some back story I wrote for the development of my original characters. I decided to put them all together instead of publishing them separately, because I don't want to be one of those authors where half of their published stories are in their own little AU.

The first one will be posted immediately after this, and there will be at least three more (there are a few I have that I'm not sure about publishing, a couple that aren't finished, and I also might write more in the future)

Here's what I have written and **will post**:

**– **An Alex/Maren two-shot that takes place between the two stories (this is the first one)  
**– **Some Alex/Maren stuff from way in the past (I wrote it for character development, but I kind of like it, and thought you might, too)  
**– **Scene(s?) I couldn't fit in to Happy Birthday (I have at least one, but I may have a couple more)  
**– **Flashbacks from the time Jude was in London without Tommy that never made it in to Happy Birthday

Here's what I haven't written but have **been thinking about** writing:

**– **Possibly an extension/alternate to one or two scenes in Happy Birthday  
**– **maybe some more scenes from tour  
**– **maybe some of what Tommy was doing during Lost and Found  
**– **maybe some stuff set after Lost and Found (not enough to be a sequel, just some quick scenes)

These stories aren't quite ready to let me go yet. I hope you enjoy these little extras.

If you have any suggestions/requests for things I could write, or if you have any questions, I would love for you to leave them in reviews, or you can PM me, of course.

Thank you so much for reading,

Kari


	2. One: Alex and Maren

**A/N: **In Chapter 3 of _Lost and Found_, Jude asks about Maren and Alex says "There was one night a few weeks after..."

This is that night.

* * *

Alex felt like his chest was filled with ice. Ever since Jude had walked out, he felt strangely cut off from the rest of the world, like he was surrounded in fog he couldn't quite escape, and he was slowly suffocating in it.

He kept going to classes, kept getting his work done, and replied to e-mails and text messages with a tone of detached formality. He didn't talk to anyone about her or what had happened. When his mother called to ask if he and Jude were finally going to get around to setting a date any time soon, he successfully fought back a wave of grief that bordered on panic and said, strangely calmly, "There won't be a wedding, Mum. We are no longer engaged." and hung up, replying to her calls with short "I'm fine" text messages until she eventually stopped calling. "I'm fine" became his standard response as everyone he knew slowly found out, accompanied by a smile he hoped seemed, if not happy, at least reasonably okay.

He told himself he was dealing with it, but he wasn't. He was trying to bury it, and it was strangling him. When he was alone, he would catch himself lost in thoughts of Jude with Tommy, or, equally painfully, thoughts of himself with Jude, and realize he'd been zoned out for half an hour, torturing himself with it. Everyone seemed concerned, but no one seemed to know how to talk to him about it.

One evening, two weeks and five days after the end of his engagement, there was a knock at his door. Startled out of thoughts of Jude that were so realistic he swore he could feel her breath on his neck, Alex got up from the couch, where he'd been sitting with his head in his hands. He stumbled to answer the door, fixing his slightly mussed hair before reaching for the doorknob. He opened it to reveal Maren. "Oh. Maren. Hello." Her expression became increasingly sad as she took in his appearance.

She'd expected him to be a mess, unwashed hair and clothes, piles of dishes in the sink, maybe something knocked over or broken, but from what she could see, his apartment was meticulously, almost creepily, clean. His shirt was pressed, his hair had been washed and combed, a smile was plastered on his face, and it was so much worse than if he had been living in filth and answered the door in tears. He looked thin, almost gaunt, and there were dark circles under his eyes as though he hadn't slept in weeks. And his _smile_. To say it didn't reach his eyes would have been a colossal understatement. It looked more than forced. It looked desperate. "Oh, Lexi." She breathed.

His plastic smile began to slip from his face as he saw her cutting straight through his façade. "I'm sorry, Mare, this isn't really a good time. Maybe you can come back later." He started to close the door, trying to fight back the wave of emotion.

"No." Maren said firmly, putting her foot in the door and keeping it open. "I am not leaving." Her expression had hardened, and she looked almost angry.

"Maren." Alex said, not smiling anymore. "Please go."

"Not a chance." She pushed past him and into the flat.

"Maren!" Alex protested. She ignored him and walked to his kitchen, putting her purse down and starting to look through cupboards. He sighed. "My mum sent you, didn't she."

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "She may have been the one that told me what happened, but she didn't send me anywhere. I sent myself." She opened the cupboard that had glasses in it.

"What are you doing?"

"This is sick, Alex." She gestured around her to the immaculate kitchen as she grabbed two large wine glasses and set them down on the counter.

"What? It's perfectly clean."

"Exactly." She said as she opened more cupboards, standing on a chair to reach the cabinet above the refrigerator. "Aha!" She said, pulling out a bottle of wine and looking at it.

"What are you doing?!" Alex protested again.

"Pick your poison." She said, setting two bottles of wine on the counter next to the glasses.

"I don't want to drink." He was getting angry now. "I use that in food."

"I came here thinking" She said, opening one of the wine bottles and pouring a glass, "that I was going to have to pick you up off the floor. I thought I gave you some time to wallow, and I was going to tell you to start getting up and moving on."

"I'm _fine_."

She shot him a glare. "I see now" she continued "that I'm going to have to knock you down before I can pick you up."

"What are you on about? Knock me down? That makes no sense."

"Doesn't it?" Maren raised her eyebrows

He just wanted her out, before the wave of emotion broke through the dam and crushed him. "No! I'm fine. If I'm fine, why would you try to make me less fine? There's no logic in that."

"Lexi, you're not fine. You're not facing this. You're bottling it up, and it's going to rip you apart."

"I did face it."

Maren's eyes filled with a cold determination that scared him a little. She crossed her arms and stared at him, hard. "Face what?"

"What?"

"Face. What." She said.

"You know what." He said, panic starting to bubble up in him as he figured out what she was doing.

"Say it."

"Everything. All of this."

"Not good enough. _Say it._"

"What she did."

"Who did what?"

"Maren!" He protested.

"Jude." She said, and he flinched.

"Get out." He tried to say it calmly, pointing in the direction of the door, but his hands were shaking.

She took a step towards him instead. "Jude is gone!"

"Get out!"

Another step. "Jude left you for Tommy! They left together on tour!"

"Get the hell out of here!" He was shouting now.

"Your fiancée fell in love with someone else, Alexander!" She shouted over him.

"Shut up!" He snapped and lunged forward in an entirely uncharacteristic burst of violence, needing to make her stop talking. He brought an arm down to hit her, but her reflexes were fast from years of martial arts training, and in two swift moves, she had him pinned against the counter, holding his arm behind his back. He let out a surprised laugh that was almost a sob.

"Lexi." Maren said quietly, letting him go. "Jude–"

"Jude is gone." He said in a low voice. "Jude didn't have the decency to leave me for him. Jude called me by his name. I ended it." He turned to her, growing increasingly agitated as he spoke. "Jude got who she wanted. Jude did not _fall_ in love with someone else, she was _always_ in love with someone else! Our whole relationship was a fucking lie! Jude is gone! Jude has who she wanted all along, and I'm alone!" His voice broke, and he turned away. "Jude is gone." he whispered. Maren wordlessly grabbed the glass of wine and handed it to him. "Well there you are." He muttered. "You've knocked me down. I'm an idiot and I believed she loved me even when I should have known that she loved him. Everyone else was trying to tell me." He looked at her. "Do it. Say 'I told you so.'"

Maren sighed and poured a glass for herself. "Naomi Menkowitz." She said quietly.

"What?" Alex looked confused.

"He was sleeping with Naomi Menkowitz."

"Who?"

"Naomi was in his Chinese class. I knew her. We studied together. We went out dancing together. She was my friend. And Jake was sleeping with her for over four months."

"Jake...?"

"My ex-fiancé. We were together for two years." Maren was staring into the wine in her glass. "I loved him. He told me he loved me. He told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. But he was sleeping with Naomi Menkowitz. And you know the worst part? I completely should have seen it. Our friends knew. My flatmates knew. Our goddamn professors probably knew. He was over at her place all the time. To 'study'." She paused, biting her lip. "The man that I loved, the man I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with, he fucked another woman for four months, and I honestly_ had no idea_." She laughed mirthlessly. "A month after he proposed, I walked in on them. But, stupid me, I believed him when he told me it was a one time thing, a mistake, and eventually I actually _forgave_ him. Everyone knew but me! All of these people I thought were my friends; they all knew, and no one told me! After another three weeks, Naomi finally grew a conscience and told me the truth."

She sighed. "When I told him we were over, do you know what he said? He asked 'even if I stop seeing her?' as though it was some kind of big fucking surprise that I wouldn't immediately forgive him as long as he promised monogamy. And to top it all off, I found out last week that he's marrying her." She looked up at him. "Suffice it to say, Lexi," Alex was staring at her open-mouthed. "if I said 'I told you so', that would make me a bit of a hypocrite."

"Naomi Menkowitz." Alex said after a moment, still staring at her in surprise.

"Naomi fucking Menkowitz." she repeated.

Alex let out a little laugh, and then another, and then he couldn't seem to stop. "Sorry." He gasped between bursts of laughter. "I know it's not funny, I just... I can't stop..."

Maren was hurt, at first. She had just shared the story of her biggest heartbreak and humiliation, and he was _laughing_? But as she watched him, a smile started to pull at the corners of her mouth. "Alexander" she giggled. "have you gone completely mad?"

"That" He could barely speak for laughing. "is definitely a possibility."

"Did you just get drunk off holding a glass of wine?" Maren asked, and they both dissolved in laughter. It really wasn't that it was funny so much as that she just couldn't stop laughing, and, before long, they were both on the floor. After a moment, Alex noticed with surprise that his laughing had turned into crying, and that fact in itself was actually kind of funny.

"Are you crying?" Maren asked, her laughter dying down.

"it's possible." He said, laughing through the tears.

"Oh, Lexi." Maren laughed, though she tried not to. "Don't cry."

"This is quite possibly the most pathetic thing I've ever done." He observed, then muttered "Except maybe the part where I begged her to lie to me, and tell me she loved me more than him. Dammit."

Maren stood up, grabbing the glasses of wine, and sat back down next to Alex on the floor. She handed him the glass. "To being pathetic"

"Ha. To being pathetic." Alex wiped the tears from his cheeks and they clinked their glasses together. Alex took a sip, but Maren downed half of her glass in one gulp. Alex laughed.

"Thirsty." Maren shrugged.

"To being thirsty." Alex said, and drank the rest of the wine in his glass. Maren laughed and got the bottle, refilling their glasses. Alex clinked their glasses together and said "To Naomi fucking Menkowitz."

"To Little Tommy Q!" Maren retorted.

"Touché." Alex muttered, but said "To being the second choice." and drank.

"To cheap wine."

_"Cheap wine?" _Alex looked offended. "You think this is cheap wine? For your information, this is very _expensive_ wine, and I do not appreciate the implication that I–" Maren was cracking up, and Alex realized she was teasing him. He rolled his eyes. "To drinking _very nice _wine like it's cheap wine." He took the bottle from her and drank directly from it.

"Now we're getting somewhere!" Maren laughed.

.

"When was the last time we got drunk together?"

"Is that what we're doing?"

"You tell me." she held up the empty bottle. The second one was in Alex's hand, almost half-empty.

Maren's words were starting to slur, and Alex laughed. "Fair enough. And we didn't exactly drink much..." Alex ran a hand through his hair, thinking. "But yeah, I guess the last time we really got sloshed would have been right after you turned seventeen, the night before we went home for Easter holiday. Ben and Will snuck in that god awful wine and them and us and Rose and Liza drank it in my room and felt so rebellious. D'you remember?"

Maren grinned, the memory coming back to her. "You were afraid I'd drink too much and die of alcohol poisoning so you kept taking the bottle from me!"

"You're so small!" Alex protested. "Can you blame me? I was concerned!"

Maren rolled her eyes. "Overprotective."

"Caring!"

"Whatever." Maren took the bottle and pretended to take a huge gulp, though she only really drank a little, knowing that Alex was right. Her size did make her tolerance for alcohol fairly low, and she was pretty drunk already. The last thing she wanted was to pass out on his kitchen floor.

"Your funeral." Alex said, and finished his glass.

"Wait, was that the year my dad broke his arm, then?"

Alex nodded. "Must have been. That's why we were a day later leaving than we expected."

"Oh, right! Everyone else went back to their own rooms because they were afraid of missing curfew, but I was on the list as having left already, so I stayed."

Alex grinned. "You hid in the cupboard when they came round to check. You kept giggling the whole time, Ben and I were convinced they'd find you, but they didn't."

"Such rebels, we were." Maren laughed.

"Alcohol makes you do stupid things." Alex stuck his tongue out at her.

Maren looked very serious, suddenly. "Stupid things like losing my virginity?"

Ben had fallen dead asleep, having had more to drink than either of them. They had been snogging, fully aware that they were now effectively alone. Maren's head was slightly fuzzy with alcohol, and they had... What? Gotten carried away? Gone farther than she'd expected? Yes. But not farther than she had wanted. She had loved Alex. Loved him with everything she had to give at seventeen years old.

"Stupid things like not waking up until my mum walked in on us in the morning."

Maren winced at the embarrassing memory. "Oh lord, I thought she was going to have our heads."

"No." Alex shook his head. "She was mad at first, and surprised, obviously. You remember the awkward car ride back home, but, you know, she never told your parents. I don't even think she told my dad. She wasn't mad." He looked into his empty glass. "I think in her mind at the time we were good as married anyway."

Maren laughed, a little bitterly. "She was wrong about that one."

"Maren," Alex sighed. "I didn't break up with you because we had sex."

She sighed too. "It really felt that way, Alex. You wouldn't talk about it, you would barely look at me! And then two weeks later you told me you didn't want to be with me anymore. What was I supposed to think?"

"It wasn't about that. I never regretted what we did, it was just... My mum wouldn't shut up about it. The whole of Easter holiday." Alex mumbled. "How perfect we were, how we were going to be so happy. She was pretty much picking out names for our kids, Mare, and I..."

"And you started to think that we weren't together because we wanted to be, but because it's what everyone else wanted for us." Maren finished. "I know. I figured that out. I get it." She shook her head and smiled. "I got over it a long time ago." She pulled herself up from the floor by the counter and stretched. "Ow. Your kitchen floor is not exactly comfortable." She looked at the clock, which read 23:55. "Dammit." She muttered. She went to grab her purse and stumbled, steadying herself on the counter. "There is no way I can drive."

Alex stood too, and was watching her with a strangely intense expression. "Then stay." He said quietly.

She waved a hand dismissively. "No, it's alright. I can call a cab. I'll get my car tomorrow." she took her phone from her purse.

Alex put a hand on her arm, and she looked up. "Stay." His face was closer to hers than she had expected, and it caught her off-guard. She set her phone and purse back down.

"Right, well, I suppose it isn't as though I've got anything urgent to do tomorrow morning, and you have a couch."

"Maren." He looked almost sad. He placed a hand one the side of her face and whispered. "Stay."

"I said I wou-" He kissed her, cutting her off. She pulled back in surprise just far enough to look at him. "Alex." She whispered. "What are you doing?" She could smell the wine on his breath, see the details of each of his unfairly long eyelashes. The closeness of their faces was so strange and so strangely familiar.

"I don't know." He breathed. "I'm sorry." He started to pull away.

Maren hadn't thought she felt anything for Alex anymore, but something made her pull him back. "No, it's okay. Stay." She said, kissing him and wrapping her arms around his neck, and once she had, they couldn't stop. It gave her the sensation that she had tipped some sort of balance, and now they were falling, rolling downhill.

She didn't think about it for too long, though, because his hands were on her lower back, pressing her tight against him, and his lips were on her neck, and between these sensations and the fuzziness from the wine, her brain had no room to think coherent thoughts. He lifted her onto the countertop and she wrapped her legs around his waist without hesitation. She quickly determined that in her current state she had neither the patience nor the dexterity to undo the little buttons on his shirt, so she just pulled it apart, hearing the strangely satisfying sound of buttons popping off and hitting the floor.

It wasn't until Alex's fingers were on the button of her jeans that he hesitated. He pulled back, breathing heavily, and whispered "Stop, stop. Wait, Mare." She did, and he murmured "Is this... okay?"

That was, she thought, what he had said that night when she was 17. She couldn't be sure, but there was a vague echo of memory to it. She nodded and looked into those big green eyes of his. "But only if you want to, Alex."

He answered by kissing her. He started to move back, and for a second, she thought he was pulling away, and started to release her hold on him, but he kept hold of her and lifted her off the counter. Apparently Maren was not the only one stronger than she looked, because he carried her, legs wrapped around his waist, to his bedroom.

.

The light woke Maren, and for a minute she was totally unsure of where she was. She slowly became aware, first, that she was naked, second, that this was not her bed, and third, that her head hurt like hell. As she opened her eyes, the events of the previous night came back to her. "Alex?" She asked groggily, noticing that the bed beside her was empty. Surely he hadn't simply left?

"Hi" his soft voice came from the side of the bed, behind her, and she turned. He was sitting in a chair, fully dressed, his hair damp from a shower. His expression was serious, but strangely unreadable.

"Good morning." She sat up against the headboard, keeping the blanket wrapped around her, covering her chest. Sober, and in the light of day, she was suddenly uncomfortable being naked in front of him. The light pierced through her eyes and she groaned. "Oh God, my head."

"There's a glass of water on the bedside table." He indicated with a tilt of his head. "You should have some." She did as he asked and drank the whole glass. "You can shower, if you want." He said, kindly, but also somewhat formally. So he did feel awkward about it. Shit. Of course he did. "Your clothes are here." He stood and placed the neatly folded pile of her clothes on the end of the bed. "I'm going to go make something for breakfast." He glanced at the clock. "Nearly lunch, now, I suppose." He smiled at her, but there was still tension in his face.

"Thank you, Alex."

He nodded and left the bedroom.

.

Maren showered, agonizing the whole time over how much Alex regretted having slept with her. He had just ended an engagement, after all, and to sleep with him, her best friend, really had been stupid. What horrible timing.

After having dressed in her clothes from the night before, she went to the kitchen, where Alex had made omelettes. Of course he had.

There was a long silence that grew increasingly uncomfortable until Alexander broke it, saying softly, "I'm sorry."

She sighed. "You regret last night."

"No!" Alex insisted. "I mean, not really. It's not that I regret it, it's that..."

"You're not over Jude." Maren finished.

Alex looked pained. "When I woke up this morning, for a second I thought you were her."

"Sorry to disappoint."

He winced. "No, I do care about you, it's just–"

Maren shook her head with a little laugh. "I'm kidding. I get it, Lexi. Don't feel bad. It's only been three weeks."

"Two weeks, six days." He muttered.

"It's alright. To be honest, I don't even know that I'm really over Jake yet, and it's been months. I understand. The timing is horrible for so many reasons."

"I do care about you, Mare. A lot. But to make you my rebound would be doing you a grave injustice. So for now I think we need to just be friends and I need to take time to try to move on and then maybe–"

"I'm going to India." Maren interrupted.

"we can see if– hold on, you're what?" He was completely taken aback.

"I'm going to be doing some work in India, for a few months. I'll be volunteering teaching maths and English at an under-funded primary school."

"You're... wow. When do you leave?"

"One week from yesterday. And I get back in May."

"May? So that's..."

"Five months." She sighed. "I know I should have said something last night, but it just... didn't come up."

"Five months." He asked, still trying to get past the shock of that.

"I know. But this way, we both get our time to work things out, and when I come back we can try to figure out what this is. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something." She sighed again, remembering the Alexander that had answered the door last night, clean and plastic and repressing all of his emotions. "Do you think you can start trying to get up and get over her?"

He smiled, a real, warm, Alexander smile. "Now that you've knocked me down?"

"And hopefully picked you back up a little too?"

He nodded. "No more not dealing with it." He looked around at his flat, at all the places where Jude had left her memory. "Danny and Ashleigh are getting engaged, and he told me yesterday he's selling his flat. I think I might buy it."

"I think that's a really good idea."

He smiled again. God she had missed that smile. "Come here." He enveloped her in a warm, tight hug. "Thank you, Mare."

"Any time, Lexi."


	3. Two: Alex Meeting Jude

**A/N: **Just can't seem to break this habit of posting on Fridays :)

This is a flashback I actually published as part of Happy Birthday when I published the first part on here in 2009, but with the re-write and re-format, it wasn't necessary for the story, and I was unable to fit it in in a way that made sense. Another Alex-centric piece. Quite a few of these are. I like his character.

* * *

Music was Alexander's life. Though he didn't play a note, he'd always loved just being _around_ it. It wasn't hard, seeing as his aunt owned a big London record company. He had plenty of friends at the studio, he'd been coming there whenever he could for as long as he could remember, despite the fact that he and his aunt didn't get along.

He had been visiting on Jude Harrison's first day. It was his birthday, and he'd wanted to celebrate it with Rob and the guys, instead of with the stuffy former prep school boys his mother would rather he socialize with.

Nora was excited that day. Some hot new artist was coming over from Canada and leaving her old record label to come work at Burmondsey. Apparently she was incredibly famous. Alexander had definitely heard of her, (something about being trapped in a basement..?) and that was a feat on its own, as he made rather a point to ignore celebrity gossip. Her music was good. The whole studio was atwitter before she got there. It was actually rather annoying. No one was even talking to him, and he'd been about to leave when he'd seen her.

The cloud of people circling around her made her easy to spot. She was wearing dark sunglasses, carrying her battered guitar case, and seemed to be in a sort of fog– muttering polite replies to people who asked her questions, but mostly looking down at her shoes.

Then she took off her sunglasses to talk to Nora. Her eyes were red and puffy, as if she'd been crying a lot in the last couple days, but she smiled at something her new boss said, and the smile, tired-looking as it was, turned her face from pretty to magnificent.

"Doubt she's single, mate, girl like that." Danny, a thirty-something drummer in one of the more popular bands on the label, and the exact stereotype of the musician that his mother didn't want her baby boy to associate with, laughed from his left.

"Who says I care?" Alexander snapped.

Danny laughed his rough smoker's laugh again, and said, "Your jaw was hanging 'bout down to your knees." Alex glared at him.

"–and this is Daniel, one of our artists, and my nephew, Alexander." His aunt was saying, guiding Jude over to them.

"Danny's the name. Drummer for Pale Contraband" Danny said, giving Jude a broad smile and extending his hand. "The drooling fool is Alex."

Alexander brought a hand up to his mouth, startled. Had he been drooling? Finding his lips dry, he smacked Danny in the head. The drummer just laughed, though Nora scowled. Before she could do anything to him, her mobile rang. "I have to take this, Jude. Alexander" she said his name with her usual distaste "can finish showing you around. Daniel, you record in 15 minutes. Studio 2." She answered the phone and walked briskly away.

"She seems…" Jude hesitated "nice…"

Alexander laughed, having gotten ahold of himself. "She's vile, most of the time. But I'm biased. She hates me."

"Aw. I'm sorry." Jude said

"No problem. I'm used to it." He reached out his hand to shake hers. Her skin was soft and cool. "I'm Alexander. Alex."

Jude smiled her tired smile again. "So I've heard. I'm Jude Harrison. Jude."

"No kidding." He laughed, and reluctantly let go of her hand.

"Listen, Miss Harrison." Danny said.

"Call me Jude, please."

"As long as you don't call me Daniel."

"Deal." She smiled a little more

"Jude, young Alex and I have made a bit of a wager..."

"We have?" Alexander looked over at him, confused. "No we haven't."

Danny ignored him. "See, I keep telling him that, girl like you– beautiful and famous and everything– no way you don't have a boyfriend, but he don't believe me. So, what do you say?"

Alexander was mortified. "Please don't feel like you have to answer that."

"It's ok. I'm…" She hesitated and bit her lip. "Yeah. I'm single." It looked like that words hurt her to say, making Alex wonder if she'd just gone through a bad breakup, but she smiled a little at him and he felt like he might lift off the ground.

"So I believe that's twenty quid you owe me, Danny." He asked smugly when he'd gotten his sense of direction back.

The drummer narrowed his eyes but reached for his wallet.

Jude laughed, shaking her head. The laugh was thin, insubstantial, turning into a sigh halfway through.

"So, Alex," Jude asked when the exchange was done. "Do you play?" She gestured to her guitar.

"Um… well… I play a little…"

Danny cackled. "Not a chord. No rhythm either. Besides that, his singing voice is atrocious."

Jude's eyes widened. "You don't play at all?" She asked, as if it was unconceivable that anyone didn't play guitar.

"Guilty as charged." He answered sheepishly.

"Well," she smiled up at him, more brightly than before, and Alexander's breath caught in his throat. "We'll have to fix that."


	4. Three: Prolific

**A/N:** This is a missing scene from Happy Birthday. I wrote it fairly early on, but was unable to fit it into the story later. This would take place basically in between chapters 15 and 16 (or really I suppose during the last paragraph of chapter 15) (so, just after Tommy becomes her co-producer, a couple weeks before the stuff with his mom.)

Just a little Jommy scene.

* * *

"Jude?" Tommy called.

"In here!" came her voice from inside Studio 4.

"I was thinking we should probably start- woah!" Jude was sitting on the rug in the middle of the recording booth surrounded by journals and sheets of paper.

She grinned sheepishly up at him. "Sorry. I was looking through these this morning, and I ended up bringing them here. They're my–"

"Songs" Tommy breathed, finishing her sentence. "Damn. I knew you had written a lot, but... damn."

"You always said I was–"

"prolific, but this is insane."

Jude laughed. "Look at this one." she said. She held up a sheet of notebook paper that looked like it was about to fall apart– torn corners, smudged pencil, deep creases. The words were written in the large, awkward handwriting of a young child. Tommy sat next to Jude on the floor, and his grin broadened as he read the lyrics. It was simple, childish rhyme comparing Sadie to the Wicked Witch of the West.

"Utter literary genius." Tommy said sarcastically after he'd finished and handed the sheet of paper back to her.

"Shut up!" Jude smacked his arm. "It was grade two!"

Tommy laughed, really laughed, and the sound felt strange coming from his throat. He realized that it had been a year and a half since he'd laughed like that. But in the last week he had started smiling again, laughing with increasing frequency. It was like being around Jude again had unlocked a part of him that only she could reach. The part of him that was carefree, almost _fun_. The part of him that would go to the ends of the earth for this girl, or– God forbid– give sappy gifts.

Jude had a softish look in her eyes at his laugh, and it was almost painful not to be able to kiss her then.

Tommy looked away, grabbing a journal– a newer one, one that had his handwriting alongside hers– and opened it. He recognized the lyrics instantly.

"Oh! It's Don't You Dare." Jude said, reading over his shoulder.

Tommy nodded. It was the song that had broken his defenses, at the church that day.

Jude hummed a few bars, and Tommy smiled. "One of my favorite Jude Harrison songs." he said. Jude snorted, and he turned to look at her, indignant at the dismissal of his compliment.

"You're only saying that because it's about you."

Tommy smirked. "No, because _then_ I would have chosen White Lines, or That Girl, or 2 AM, or Deeper, or Skin-"

"Hey! That one's only partly about you!"

"Whatever" Tommy rolled his eyes "or what about Time to be Your 21, Liar Liar, Here We Go Again, Ultraviolet... or I Still Love You." His voice broke when he named the last title, but Jude either didn't notice, or just ignored it. "And that's just the ones we recorded, Harrison" he recovered and said.

"Fine, fine." she laughed. "Point taken." She tipped her head to the side, and her expression was tender again. "You've been my inspiration for a long time."

"But not anymore." He said, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear sadly. "I've been replaced."

Jude shook her head firmly. "Never! Over half of the songs on my last album were written about you, Tommy. I-" she broke off, and Tommy was hyper aware of her lips just inches from his. All he would have to do would be lean forward. The air was electric.

Jude cleared her throat, and turned away. "We should record." She muttered.

Tommy clenched his jaw, silently cursing the whole situation. "You're right."

"I'll... clean this up." Jude said awkwardly, her hands suddenly busy with papers, avoiding his eyes.

Tommy nodded and stood up. "I'll set up the sound board then."

Jude didn't respond, and Tommy stood up and walked through the glass door that separated the two parts of the studio without a word.

* * *

**A/N: **By the way, shout out to the reviewer who told me I should never write again! Love you too! Thanks so much for reading! :D


	5. Four: Beginning

**A/N:** This is an Alex/Maren story I wrote back in November while failing at NaNoWriMo. It came from the same list of one word prompts that the IS story _Father's Day_ and my Burn Notice story _Yellow_ did. I never planned for anyone else to read it. But here it is! (idk why I suddenly started writing in present tense, but I kind of like it.)

The prompt was "Beginning."

* * *

The knock at the door of his room breaks Alexander out of his daydream. He glances over at Ben, who is frantically pressing buttons on his Xbox controller. "Could you get that, mate?" Ben asks, as he launches a grenade at a group of attacking aliens. "Kind of busy here."

"Yeah, got it." Alex stands up from his desk and opens the door just as Maren is about to knock again. Seeing her, the very person he had been daydreaming about moments earlier, Alex's heart jumps into his throat and begins pounding uncomfortably. "Oh, Maren, hi." He shifts awkwardly in the doorway. Her dark, shiny hair is up in a ponytail, showing the curve of her neck. Her skin looks soft, and he– _Stop it stop it stop it for God's sake Alexander. _He reprimands himself. _This is Maren._

"Hey Maren!" Ben calls.

"Hi Ben!" She calls back with a bright smile, then looks back up at Alex. "I was wondering if you wanted to go get some tea or something. I feel like I've barely seen you lately."

"Um, yeah, I know, I've been..." Maren is biting her lip, and the more he tries not to focus on her mouth the more it distracts him. "I've been really busy, sorry." To his horror, his voice cracks. He clears his throat and repeats "Sorry."

A crease forms in her forehead. "Are you busy now?"

"Um..." _Focus. Focus, Alex. _"Yeah, sorry. Studying. McCurdy is really piling on the work. We've got an exam tomorrow on... um..." his mind searches frantically to remember what they're studying in calculus. "like, integrals and things."

Maren's frown deepens. "Integrals and things. Right, okay."

"Another time, Mare? Yeah?"

She sighs. "yeah, alright."

"Good." He closes the door and leans against it. "Shit shit _shit!"_ He curses under his breath.

Ben, who has actually paused his game, is looking at Alex with raised eyebrows.

"What?"

"What was that?" Ben laughs.

"Nothing." Alex snaps.

"An, um, exam, um, on, um, like, integrals and things!" Ben imitates, voice cracking repeatedly in a caricature of a 13-year-old boy.

"Oh, fuck off!"

Ben just laughs again. "Seriously. What's wrong with you? You've been avoiding Maren for two weeks now. I thought she was your best friend or whatever."

"She _is._" Alex insists, flopping back onto his bed. _That's the problem. _

"Then why are you acting like she's..." He trails off, and then his jaw falls open. "No way. We were joking at Gala, daring you to dance, but you've really... No way!"

Alex looks over at him. "No way what?"

"You've got the hots for Maren Wesley!"

"I do not!" Alex insists.

Ben shrugs. "I don't blame you, mate. I'd _definitely_ hit that."

In a flash, Alex is up on his feet, his face red, blazing with anger "Talk about her like that again and I will knock your teeth out."

Ben laughs. "Hey, hey, calm down, Alex! I was just saying that to see if I could get a rise out of you!" He smirks "...Maren really gets a rise out of me, if you know what I-" he cuts off, laughing as Alex throws the closest missile he can find, which thankfully happens to be his pillow. "Sorry, sorry. I had to." He held his hands up in surrender and defense as Alex grabs a book and prepares to launch it. "Truth told, she's not my type. No need to start throwing things."

"You're an arsehole, Ben." Alex puts down the book and sighs.

"So you're what, then?" Ben teases, and throws Alex's pillow back to him. "In love with her?"

"I'm not! She's my best friend! I've known her since she was born."

"Yeah, well, she's all grown up now, and if you haven't noticed that, then you're the last one." Alex glares at him again and Ben protests. "Hey! Just stating a fact." Alex groans and puts his head in his hands. "Hot or not," Ben says. "You need to do something about that stammering _fast_. I mean, like, integrals and things?" He chuckles and un-pauses the game, going back to killing aliens and leaving Alex to wallow in his humiliation.

.

"And then he pretty much slammed the door in my face!" Maren laments to her friends. "He hates me!"

"He doesn't hate you, sweetie." Eliza insists.

"Then why has he been avoiding me? It's like as soon as he sees me he has to get away as soon as possible."

"I don't get it." Rose says. "Since when? I thought he was like, your best friend."

"He _is_!"

"Oi!" Eliza protests. "What am I, then?"

"You and Rose are my best girl friends." Maren clarifies. "But Alex is... we've practically been friends since before we were born. He's always been there. Until now!" She throws herself back onto the pillows, her eyes filling with tears. "Now he hates me!"

"But like... What even happened?" Rose asks. "Why would he hate you?"

"Rosie!" Eliza shrieks. "He doesn't hate her!" She pats Maren on the hand "He doesn't hate you, sweetie."

Rose rolls her eyes. "I'm not saying he _does_, you idiot. I'm asking why he would be _acting _like he does."

"He's been like this ever since Gala." Maren sniffles. "When everyone dared us to dance."

"What? Did you step on his toes or something?"

"Rosie!" Eliza cries again.

"It was a joke!" Rose insists.

"I didn't step on his toes. I didn't do anything." _Except turn bright red the second he touched you._

"Maybe he's just on his man period or something." Eliza suggests.

"His _man period, _Liza?!"Rose exclaims incredulously. "Really?"

"I was kidding!"

"Shut _up_, both of you!" Leah, Maren's roommate, groans from her desk on the other side of the room. She has removed her headphones and is frowning at Eliza and Rose, looking very impatient.

"Sorry, Leah." Maren sniffles sheepishly. "Are you studying or something? We can go somewhere else."

"No, it's not that. I just can't believe you haven't figured it out yet."

"Figured what out?" Maren sits up and looks at her roommate.

"Alex doesn't hate you, and he's not on his _man period._" She rolls her eyes at Eliza. "He's scared of you."

"What?"

"You said yourself, he starts stammering, he gets really nervous, starts looking for excuses to run away. The poor kid is terrified."

"Why would he be scared of me?" Maren looks confused. "He's known me his entire life, he can't be _afraid _of me."

"He's afraid of you because he's in love with you." Leah says matter-of-factly.

"He's what? No he isn't!" Maren can feel her face flushing.

"Please. He's mad about you. It started at Gala, when you were all dressed up..."

"You did look totally gorgeous." Rose interjects.

"You totally did. And you two shared a _romantic slow dance. _Boys are dense. He probably didn't realize how he felt until he was holding you in his arms with romantic music playing. And don't even pretend you don't feel the same way. I've lived with you for almost three years. I can read you like a book. You're totally in love with him too."

"I am not in love with Alex!" Maren insists. "And he is _certainly_ not in love with me!"

"Alex and Maren?" Eliza gives Leah a skeptical look. "Dating Alex would be like dating a tree."

"A tree?" Rose asks.

"Yeah, you know, tall, stiff, boring..."

Rose snorts and Maren glares. "He is not boring! Alex is sweet, and funny, and smart, and any girl would be lucky to date him!" She realizes what she's just said and flushes darker.

Leah smirks. "Told you."

Rose gasps. "You _do _fancy him!" Maren is bright red now, and she hangs her head, no longer bothering to deny it.

"No way!" Eliza exclaims.

"For how long?" Rose asks.

"Since before Christmas." Maren mutters into her hands

"How could you not tell us you fancy _Alexander?!"_ Eliza squeals.

"Because..." She sighs "I was trying not to. I mean, he's my _best friend! _I've known him forever. I can't think of him like that! I don't want to ruin our friendship."

Leah scoffs. "I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, love, but if he's slamming doors in your face, your friendship isn't doing so well."

"Then what do I do?" Maren is on the verge of tears again.

"You're a strong woman, yeah? Don't let him treat you like that! Confront him, tell him how you feel, and tell him that he needs to either man up and go out with you or man up and get over it."

.

Alex is still wallowing in self-pity an hour later when there is another knock at their door. Ben gets it this time. "Maren!" He exclaims. "What a lovely surprise."

"Yeah, hey, Ben. I need to talk to Alex."

Ben glances back at Alexander, who frantically makes slicing gestures across his throat and mouths "I'm not here!"

"He's right here." Ben smirks, earning a murderous glare from his roommate. "And I was just about to go to the library, so if you'll excuse me." He grabs his coat, says "He's all yours." and walks off down the hallway, smirking and humming to himself.

"I'm going to kill him." Alex mutters under his breath.

"Leaving you alone with me is a capital offense, now?" Maren asks, leaning against the closed door. Her irritation shows on her face.

Alex winces. "No, sorry. He's just an arse. I don't... You're not... I-I'm sorry."

Maren cuts to the chase. "Why are you avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding you!"

"You've barely spoken to me in weeks. When you see me coming, you walk the other direction. When I try to talk to you, you find some excuse to leave. When I asked you to come with me to get tea, which we've done a thousand times, you practically slam the door in my face!"

"I've just been-"

"Busy?" She finished. "Right. Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"Maren..." He groans.

"Is this because of Gala?"

"Gala?"

"We danced, and it's been awkward ever since. That's what this is about. I know."

He doesn't know how to respond. She's figured him out. He just sits there, not knowing what he could possibly say to rectify the situation.

His silence makes her nervous, and she starts talking again, her words rushing out. "But it doesn't have to be awkward, Lexi. You're my best friend. It's just a little crush. It's stupid. It'll pass. I can keep my feelings under control."

Alex jumps to deny it before she finishes her sentence. "Who said anything about a crus– Wait, did you say _your _feelings?"

"It's stupid." Maren says, looking down at her feet, face red. "So stupid. You don't feel the same way, and I get that. It's fine. It's fine."

"Wait, Maren, what? Feel what way?"

"I've sort of... fancied you for a while now. Whatever. It's stupid. When we danced I know I turned bright red." She laughs a little hysterically. "Probably like I am right now, and I'm sure you noticed, and that's why you've been avoiding me, because you don't want to hurt my feelings, but it's fine, I can get over it. I'll be fine. Don't feel bad just because you don't feel the same way. Your friendship means more to me than that."

Alex is once again stunned into silence, trying to compute what she's said. _She _fancies _him_?

"You're upset." Her face falls. "You're mad at me."

"I'm not mad, I'm... confused. You said you _fancy _me?"

"You didn't know?"

Alex shakes his head, still trying to figure out how this could be possible.

"Oh god." Maren says. "Oh god oh god. I've made a fool of myself now haven't I."

"No, Maren, I just... I don't know what to say."

"You don't feel the same, I know. It's stupid. It's stupid." Alex just stares at her dumbly. "Oh god." Maren says again. "I'm going to go. I'll go. Don't worry, you don't have to say anything. I'll just, I'll leave, and then we can just pretend that this never happened, and I'll get over it. It's fine. I'm going. Sorry. I'm so sorry." She turns and nearly bolts out of his room, walking quickly down the stairs and out of the dormitory with her head down, tears pricking the backs of her eyeballs.

Alex sits in his stupor for way too long before a voice in his head says "She likes you too, you idiot! Go after her!"

"Maren!" He practically runs out of the building, not even thinking to put on a coat over his T-shirt, and catches her in the middle of the courtyard their schools share. March has come in like a lion, and there is snow on the ground, his breath coming out in a fog. "Maren, wait!"

She stops and turns to him, tear tracks evident on her cheeks. "What?"

"Mare, when we danced at Gala, I didn't notice you blushing."

"I know, you didn't know, and now I've made a fool of myself. I got it."

"No!" He protests. "I didn't notice you blushing, all I noticed was how beautiful you looked."

To his dismay, Maren looks even more upset by that. "Alex, that's sweet, but you don't have to try to make me feel better."

"I mean it! Ever since Gala, I haven't been able to get you out of my head. I think about you all the time. I dream about you."

Maren looks surprised and confused. "But you've..."

"I can't stop thinking about you, and that scares the shit out of me. I've been acting like an idiot because I'm scared of falling for my best friend. I'm scared I'm going to mess this up, and then I'm going to lose you. I didn't think there was any way you felt the same way, but now you're saying you do, and I just... I'm thinking maybe we should try this."

"Lexi, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying... Maren, I'm saying..." Suddenly overtaken by the moment, Alex takes a step forward and kisses her. It's a less-than-perfect kiss, their noses smashing together, but Alex feels a sort of warmth spreading from his lips to the rest of his body, despite the fact that he's beginning to shiver in the frigid air.

"Woah!" Maren pulls back, taken completely off-guard.

"Sorry." Alex breathes. "I was trying to be spontaneous and romantic."

Maren laughs. The whole situation is so surreal. "Alex, when you say try this..."

"I mean will you be my girlfriend?"

"But our friendship..."

Alex shakes his head. "I don't know if I can go back to seeing you that way. But if that's what you want..."

"No. If you're in this, I'm in this"

"I'm in this."

Maren kisses him, more softly this time, and they fit together they way she's imagined they would. She feels suddenly, all in a rush, that this is the beginning of something new and wonderful. Something lasting.

* * *

**A/N: **I know people don't _really_ care about Alex and Maren, because they're not actually even Instant Star characters, and that's why I wouldn't publish these separately, but I liked writing them. This is the last Maren/Alex extra I have, but yeah thanks for reading it despite the lack of Jommy :P


	6. Five: First Kiss

**A/N: **Another Friday, another update! I've been writing a lot lately (like A LOT. I don't know why), and I intend to keep posting something every Friday for the immediate future, whether that's a new extra or a new one-shot.

This is an Alex/Jude flashback moment I wrote way back when I was like 14 or something. It was referenced twice– once in Happy Birthday, and once in Lost and Found– and I kept forgetting that I hadn't been able to actually fit it in. Basically, I've been under the impression that everyone had read this already, which is not the case. So you can all read it now! (All five people who read these, that is. :P)

* * *

Alexander always ran his hands through his hair when he was nervous. He had ever since he was a little kid. At Jude's album release party, he had been more than nervous. He was afraid he would pull his hair out in chunks by accident.

Jude had been at his aunt's label for a little over three months. From the very first day, he'd had something of a crush on her.

Ok. That's a bit of an understatement. He was head over heels.

Oh, Jude liked him enough. They were pretty good friends. She was trying to teach him guitar, but even self-proclaimed guitar goddesses couldn't make Alexander musical, apparently.

For almost six weeks now, he'd been trying to get up the nerve to ask her out on a date. Today, he was finally going to do it. The only problem was, he couldn't find her. Somehow she had disappeared from her own party.

"Rob!" he called. The engineer was leaning against a counter with a mostly empty glass in his hand. He was laughing loudly. Alex rolled his eyes. Robert had no tolerance for alcohol, and that was likely his first drink. He didn't get drunk often, but when he did...

"Hmmwhat?" Rob slurred "Oh. Hey 'lex."

"Have you seen Jude?"

"She said she had to make a call, or something." He suddenly laughed. "You should try some of this, Lexi. It's really good." He gestured to his glass.

"Don't call me Lexi. And you probably shouldn't have any more."

"Psh. This is only my-" he held up four fingers, then frowned and pushed one of them down with his other hand. "third drink."

"That's like a normal person's tenth, Rob." Alex warned.

"Yeah, yeah."

"You know you'll regret it in the morning." Alex shook his head. "Anyway, Jude?"

"What about her?"

"Where did she go?"

"Studio three, I think. Why?" he asked, managing to focus his eyes for a second.

"I need to ask her something."

"Oh HO!" Robert winked dramatically. "Well, good luck then."

He rolled his eyes. "thanks."

When he found her, she was on the phone. "Well, it was nice to talk to you again. I really hope you like the album." Alex heard Jude's voice, sounding strangled, like she was trying not to cry. "I lo–" she cut herself off quickly. "Sorry, sorry. Force of habit." she laughed, but it sounded a bit like a sob. After a short pause, she whispered. "bye."

He stood, frozen, not wanting to intrude on a private moment, but wondering if she was okay. After a minute, he heard her start to play her guitar. He stepped closer to hear.

"Alex?" She stopped playing. "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know you were here."

He was embarrassed at being caught eavesdropping. "I'm sorry, Jude. I didn't mean to interr- hey, what's wrong?" she was crying quietly, tears streaming down her cheeks. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulders.

She wiped her eyes, smearing her mascara, and smiled a little. "Nothing's wrong. Not really. I'm okay."

"Well I'm-" he took a deep breath. "Jude, you know I'm here for you. Always, ok? If you need something, anything. Just ask."

She looked at him. Her expression was tender. It made his heart beat faster. "That's really sweet Alex. Thank you." Before he knew what was happening, she had placed her hands on either side of his face and kissed him lightly on the lips. He sat there, shocked into dumbfounded silence.

Her smile faded. "Oh no. Alex, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"No." he cut her off. "It-it's fine I-" he kissed her harder than she'd kissed him, and she let out a noise of surprise, but kissed him back after a second. When he pulled away, he asked, "Do you want to maybe go out sometime?"

She looked at him and laughed. "Sure. I'd love to."

* * *

**By the way, **two nights ago, without intending to, I wrote the story of this phone conversation from Tommy/Jude's point of view. It has some other Tommy stuff in it too, and no Alex or anything, so instead of posting it here, I'll post it as its own story. Sort of a prequel to Happy Birthday, if you will. It's called Clarity, because of that Zedd song that I've secretly been listening to on repeat for the last 48 hours.

Just keep an eye out for that next Friday! (24th of May) (if it's later than that, it's probably up already and you can go check it out)


	7. Six: Toast

**A/N:** Um yeah so this is a thing I wrote a while ago. It kind of came out of nowhere, and I didn't write it with the intention to share it with anyone, just to get it out of my head so I could stop writing it out loud to myself in the shower every morning (I do that. I know, I'm weird. It's okay.)

This would take place more than a year after Lost and Found. Tommy is releasing his first solo album and Jude has to make some kind of a speech, and this is that.

* * *

"First I just want to say that I am so excited for people to finally hear this album. We've been working on this for what feels like forever, and, like with any album, it's incredibly exciting to finally have the opportunity to share all that hard work with people. So thank you to everyone who's worked with us, and to Nora for giving it a shot, and thank you so much to everyone who buys the CD and everyone who listens and to all of you who came tonight to support Tom and this incredible incredible album that he's created." Everyone applauded, and Jude waited for it to die down.

"I don't think people realize what it takes to be able to release an album after so long. I don't think anyone gets what a terrifying thing that can be. And with a new baby at home? That's insane. Hell, I'm not the one releasing the album and I've been scared out of my mind." Laughter. "I never told Tom this, but there were about a hundred times when I was completely sure he was going to give up, and definitely a few moments when I thought maybe he should."

Tommy called "Gee thanks, hon" from their table in the front, and the audience laughed again.

"Brief moments, I swear!" Jude insisted, and Tommy grinned at her. "But the thing is, he couldn't have given up, because this album has been in the works in one way or another since long before I knew him, and it's about damn time that it actually gets heard." More laughter came from the audience, and Jude took a deep breath.

"I have to confess that I've, um, kind of agonized about what to say tonight. Because what do you even say about someone who means so much to you?" From the audience, Tommy was giving her _her_ look, and Jude felt her face flush and looked down at her papers for a second to compose herself before clearing her throat and looking back out. "When I met Tommy I was a 15 year old girl with dyed red hair who had just won a TV talent competition. So obviously, I was completely sure I knew pretty much everything there was to know about music." The loudest laughter in the audience that time was Tommy's. "When Georgia told me that the 'writer-producer with real substance' she'd paired me with was none other than Little Tommy Q of Boyz Attack, I was _not_ happy. I mean Boyz Attack? Really?"

"Hey!" Tommy protested.

"Would you hush, Quincy?" Jude rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to tell a story here." Tommy held up his hands in surrender as the audience chuckled. "_Anyway, _since all I had to judge him on was a 90s boy band, I was less than thrilled at the prospect of him as my mentor. I was even less thrilled a few minutes later when he proceeded to tear what I thought was a beautiful and perfect song completely to shreds. He corrected everything from the way I played guitar to the topic of my lyrics."

"And you walked out on me!" Came Tommy's contribution from the audience.

"And I walked out on him." Jude confessed. "But within the week, Little Tommy Q had taught me more about music and life as a musician than I had learned in 15 years, and that was barely the tip of the iceberg of the ways this man would change my life." She took a deep breath and looked directly at Tommy.

"Since I've known you, Tommy, you've gone from my big sister's totally lame celebrity crush to my producer, my mentor, my secret crush, (or, well, my not-so-secret crush, because let's be honest here, everyone knew,) my sister's boyfriend, and then her ex, my co-producer, my secret boyfriend, _my_ ex, my boyfriend again, the guy who broke my heart" She sighed. "and eventually the guy whose heart I broke. You've been my best friend, and my worst enemy. You are, without a doubt, my soulmate, and the love of my life." Jude found herself getting choked up. That look was back on Tommy's face, and tears pricked at her eyes. "And now you're an amazing father to our beautiful baby girl, and I could never ask for anything more." A few tears escaped and she laughed a little and wiped them away.

"Our relationship has been through a lot, to say the least. But through that roller coaster, ever since that day at the lake when I was 15, one thing you've always been is a huge, huge part of my music. Sometimes you're my co-writer, sometimes you're playing with me on piano or guitar, and sometimes you're behind the board, but even when we weren't working together I could see your hand, your voice, your soul in everything I made. No matter what else you are to me, you are in my music. You always have been, and you always will be." She took a breath and wiped more tears from her eyes, hoping she wasn't wrecking her makeup. When she looked at Tommy, she was surprised to see him wiping away his own tears.

"And that's why I am so incredibly excited that people are finally getting to see the talent and hear the music that I get to experience every single day. I am so, so proud of you, Tommy. And thank you so much." He got up from his table as she said her last sentence and she stepped down from the platform.

He met her at the bottom of the steps up to the stage and instantly embraced her, murmuring "Goddammit, Harrison."

She laughed in his ear. "Love you too, Quincy."

He pulled back to kiss her, holding her face in both his hands. He pulled back again, opened his mouth to try to articulate how he felt, but couldn't find the words. He laughed a little, resting his forehead on hers and said "Goddammit, Harrison" again.

"I'm so proud of you, babe."

"It would never have happened without you, Jude. Any of it. I mean it." He kissed her forehead. "Thank you."

* * *

**A/N: **Sweet, if short. It kind of came out of nowhere (the file is called "Toast what?" on my computer because I was like wait what is this thing I'm writing? Okay then) but I'm not unhappy with it. Your thoughts are appreciated as always, if only so I know there are actually people still reading these :P


	8. Seven: Never Happened

**A/N:** Another Jommy one, a missing scene from Happy Birthday. I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, but it's based on an idea I worked with while writing the original story.

* * *

"What happens if you replace that a flat minor with an E Major 7th?" Jude asked.

It was Monday afternoon, just after Tommy had come back from New Brunswick, and he and Jude were in Jude's music room, putting the final touches on a song they had to record later. Tommy was sitting at the piano and Jude was laying on the couch on the other side of the room.

"Major 7th?" Tommy's brow furrowed, thinking. "So basically just put the E in the root?"

"Yeah. I'm wondering how that sounds with the progression in the bridge."

"I don't know, Harrison..." He sounded skeptical. "That's coming from the IV chord. That could sound pretty odd. We're not trying to create some modern jazz masterpiece here."

"Would you just play it, Quincy?" Jude rolled her eyes. "I just want to hear what it sounds like." She got up from the couch and went to stand behind him as he played the piano part for the bridge again with her chord changes. Tommy was right. It sounded odd. "How about if you invert it?" She asked. "Does that resolve any better?" He tried. "No, I mean–" She leaned over him and played it the way she was thinking. "You see?" She pulled her hands back from the keyboard and put them on his shoulders, leaning in to him.

"That's better, but I still think we're better off sticking to the... uh..." It was embarrassing, really, the fact that even that casual contact, her torso pressed against his back, her fingers drumming lightly on his shoulders, was overwhelming, making him totally unable to think clearly. "the simpler chord for that part. We have the dominant and um... the suspensions later in the bridge that already set it apart from the chorus, and– Jude, please." She had started to slide her right hand down his chest and he had caught it.

"What? Oh." She looked confused for only a split second before her expression changed to embarrassment. "Sorry." She pulled her hand back, clearing her throat and sitting backwards on the piano bench next to him, looking down at the ground. "So you like things the way they are?" She asked.

He sighed and leaned into her, putting his face inches from hers. She turned to look at him, and they were so close she could feel his breath. His eyes burned into hers. "Jude." He said her name so quietly she could barely hear him, like if he spoke quietly he wasn't really crossing this line. "You know what I want." He put a hand on the side of her neck. "But I can't make that happen. I'm not in control here, you are."

"Tommy, I..." He was too close, this was wrong. She knew she should stop him, needed to stop him, but she couldn't force herself to move. If anyone walked in and saw them she couldn't explain this away. She found herself suddenly, wildly, hoping someone would. For that moment she wanted Alex to come home unexpectedly and burst in and see them locked here in the moment before a kiss. She allowed herself, very briefly, to wish that he would come in and make this decision for her. It was barely a second, just an errant selfish thought, but in that fraction of a moment, with their lips almost touching, all she wanted was this. All she wanted was Tommy, and her love for Alex, along with her and guilt and obligation regarding her engagement, were far away thoughts. Tommy looked so sad, so hurt, and she was so close to kissing him, to taking away his pain and her own...

And then he pulled back. Cold air rushed in in his absence. He played a few chords on the piano and then nodded at her, answering her question from before. "Yeah. I do. I like the chords the way they are." He said it nonchalantly, though his voice was slightly hoarse. He cleared his throat.

She was still reeling, but she forced herself to take a deep breath and snap out of it. "Yeah, okay." She said, and her voice was only a little wobbly. "I just wanted to try something. But you're right. The song is fine as is."

Tommy checked the time on his phone. "We've got about 10 minutes." He smiled at her. "Want to run it?"

"Sure thing." She smiled back. The message was clear, an unspoken agreement between them.

This never happened.


End file.
